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Hlobern miracles 
of £)ealmg 

Schlatter 




(X sfytelb for any rorong 
Ct cross for er>erg eroum 
3s a sroorb for epery trutfy 

— Schlatter 



Modern Miracles 
of Healing 



A true account of the life, works and 
wanderings of Francis Schlatter, the healer 

By FRANCIS SCHLATTER, 
The Alsacian. 



/ come not to bring a ^wcrd 
but peace to mankind. 

— Schla'Ur: = 



Copyright March, 1903 by Francis Schlatter. 

Compiled by Mrs. Ella F. Woodard, 

Kalamazoo, Mich.* 




HZ. +0( 

^S 5 



INTRODUCTION. 

It is now a little over seven years ago 
: - since the world was startled by the news- 
paper reports that an unknown man had 
appeared at Denver and was healing all 
manner of disease by the simple laying on 
of hands.. Even the people most familiar 
with the Bible had regarded the Christ 
method of dealing with human infirmity as 
practically obsolete. It may have been 
done nineteen centuries ago, but things are 
different now. Faith in the Great Physi- 
cian had been supplanted hy reliance upon 
those who dispensed plasters, powders and 
pills; and the unreliability of the modern 
methods in practice only seemed to make 
the multitude cling to them all the more 
tenaciously. 



— 4— 

But here comes a simple, unpretentious 
man, without the training of schools, who, 
by a sublime faith in the belief that the 
power of God is ample for every occasion, 
restores the sight to the blind, makes the 
deaf to hear, banishes the persistent ache 
or lingering pain, dissolving the doubt of 
whether life is really worth the living, 
thereby bringing the bloom of health to 
the pallid cheek of the ones who had been 
suffering. It was a new revelation to the 
world of the truth that was as old as the 
race, the efficacy of which seemed to be 
adequate to every human need. 

The lapse of time has not only shown the 
permanency of the work of Francis 
Schlatter, but the beautiful spirit of the 
man as well. It must needs be so, for God 
only gives a great work to do to a soul of 
ample capacity for the task in hand, and 



the following pages are submitted in 
response to the public demand for more 
definite information regarding the man 
who, in many ways, seems to be emulating 
the example and practice of the Great 
Master more nearly, perhaps, than any one 
else living upon the earth today. 



MODERN MIRACLES OF 
HEALING. 

CHAPTER I. 

Francis Schlatter was born April 29, 
1856, at Alsace, Loraine, France, now a 
German province. His father was a cloth 
manufacturer and owned, mills at Eber- 
sheim, Canton Schlastadt; he was very 
wealthy at one time but much of his wealth 
was spent in travel. Francis was born 
blind, but was healed by the fervent 
prayers of his mother when he was three 
months old. A most peculiar incident 
occurred before his birth. His mother 
worked a picture of the Good Shepherd, 
Christ, carrying a lamb, and it was believed 
that the child Francis was marked in that 
way. 



When he was two years old his parents 
moved to London, England, and the child 
attended school in that city on the East 
India Road, Paplar, E. C. He had an own 
J sister and brother who died in Ebersheim. 
His parents came to America in i860, 
stopping at Columbia, Tennessee, where 
his father purchased a plantation on the 
Pulaski Pike. Being of a roving dispo- 
sition, he did not remain very long on the 
plantation, but returned to England. He 
came to this country again at the close 
of the civil war, settling on his plantation, 
where he soon died, and was buried at 
McCain, seven miles from Columbia, in 
1868. His mother married a man by the 
name of Edward Martin, who was a con- 
tractor by occupation, and one son was 
born to them. He was named Thomas, 
and, being a bright boy, was educated for 



— 9 — 

the bar, but later went into politics and 
was recommended for an Ambassador or 
Minister Plenipotentiary during Cleve- 
land's administration. 

Francis was apprenticed to a shoemaker 
to learn that trade ; but being of a roaming 
nature, returned to London, and not being 
satisfied, came back to America just before 
the death of his father. At this time he 
discovered his power to heal. His mother 
had chronic neuralgia and he healed her by 
his touch. This was when he was twelve 
years old. It being known that the boy 
could do such strange things, the boys in 
that neighborhood would not have any- 
thing to do with him. They thought he was 
possessed of some mysterious power. This 
drove him away from home. He went to 
the old country and traveled about all the 
time, his parents furnishing him with 



— 10 — 

money. He was in Europe for thirteen 
years traveling- about and sometimes 
settling down and working at his trade 
making shoes. In the meantime he lost all 
track of his parents as they had ceased to 
write to him. He thought his mother had 
died and he was determined to find out if 
it was true and sailed back to America, 
landing in New York in May, 1884. He 
settled at St. James, Long Island, lived 
with a family by the name of Ryan. In the 
summer he worked for the Benedictine 
Bros, on a fishing boat and in the winter 
he mended shoes in a room at the Ryan 
house. August, 1891, he left for the west, 
working at his trade in several places 
along the route ; he could not hold a job as 
a shoemaker and did not stop long any- 
where. 



— 11 — 

He had a natural tact for carving stone 
and wood, so he took up with a stone 
carver and did very well for a time, but he 
soon tired of that. He went to Lincoln, 
Nebraska, and engaged as a mining 
engineer to go to Montana, but he did not 
like tramping among the mountains and 
he went to shoe making again. He went 
to Denver, Colorado, July, 1892, and 
started a shoe shop on Downing avenue, 
near Colfax avenue. He did very well for 
a time but was not contented, feeling that 
there was something better for him to do. 



V 



*x 



CHAPTER II. 

One bright July morning in 1893 he was 
sitting on his bench in meditation. The 
window was lowered a little from the top, 
when it seemed that a ball of fire came in at 
the open window and fell at his feet. The 
Savior arose out of it and said to him: 
"What are you doing here? Go and do 
the work I have given you to do." He did 
not look like the pictures that the artists 
have painted of him ; he had a very dark 
skin, a fine developed face and form, and 
was almost nude. He had a covering over 
him that looked as if it was made of platted 
grass and woven by hand. 

I did not understand the apparition, if it 
was such. He looked real to me and 
seemed to be flesh and blood: neither did 



— 13 — 

I know what it meant, but I was determined 
to trust him. I did not know what he had 
for me to do. I shut up my shop and 
started out with only three dollars and 
sixty cents in my pocket to do his bidding. 

I walked twenty-six miles that day and 
slept in a barn that night near Golden. T 
dreamed of people being healed and saw 
Jesus traveling about healing the sick; 
then it came to me what I was to do. 
When I got up the next morning and 
looked at my small amount of cash, for I 
knew it would not carry me very far, my 
heart failed me and I returned to Denver in 
a hard rain storm. When I got to my shop 
I could not go in, so I started out toward 
Trinidad on the Ft. Worth and Denver 
railroad. When I arrived at Trinidad my «/ 
money was all gone and I was footsore. I 
had not met anyone to heal up to that v 



— 14 — 

time. I walked down the track from the 
city, as I did not care to be seen, and I met 
a lot of tramps, one of whom was sick with 
the chills. I told him as the Father had 
told me — to go and heal in his name. He 
was well the next morning. They fed me 
for what I had done. I traveled with them 
for several days and made companions of 
them. They seemed to think there was 
something uncanny about me and left me 
as soon as we got into Texas. I traveled 
on alone, healing one person along the 
road toward Throck Morton. My shoes 
were nearly off my feet and I did not have 
much of anything to eat. Twice on the 
road section men gave me something out 
of their dinner pails. When I landed at 
/ Throck Morton a policeman accosted me 
and wanted to know my business. I told 
him of my mission but he would not believe 



— 15 — 

me. He called me a tramp and arrested 
me ; put me in jail, charging me with being 
a vagrant. I was sentenced to ten days' 
work on the stone pile, but was let go in 
three days, they concluding that I was a 
harmless lunatic. But I was rested from 
my soreness and was able to continue my 
journey in good spirits, the three days' 
feeding up made me feel good again. I 
was treated well all along the road until I 
got into Ft. Worth, then I was given two 
hours to leave the city, as they wanted no 
tramps there. Some days I fared well for 
food and others I went without, sleeping 
in sheds, cotton-seed houses, and during 
the cool nights of November sleeping out 
in the open air, the earth for my mattress, 
the sky my counterpane. I finally landed in 
Texarkana. It was cold that night and I 
went to a saw mill where they were burn- 



y/ 



— 16 — 

ing some slabs of logs and slept. I burned 
my shoes so badly that I could not wear 
them and I lost my hat. So I started out 
hatless and shoeless over the Iron Moun- 
tain railroad to Malvern, Arkansas, then 
over the Hot Springs railroad to Hot 
Springs. Here I heard of a Sergeant Major 
who was in the U. S. Hospital that could 
not walk. I went to see Col. Little about 
it and he allowed me to go and see him, 
and I took care of him for several days and 
I went to a boarding house and healed 
him. They told me they could not keep 
me any longer so I was obliged to sleep by 
a camp fire that cold December night. The 
next night I heard of a place in town 
where, they let people who had no money 
stop in a room by the stove. Gunther 
was the man's name who kept it. There 
were a lot of poor fellows standing outside 



— 17 — 

to get in. They were all sick and had come 
to the springs for treatment. As we were 
gathered together the city marshal and 
one of the police came down the street 
with a long rope and corralled us all, I 
being the only one they took out of the 
bunch. I was tried for insanity. I 
was beginning to think I was insane, 
going about with no shoes or hat. This 
was the latter part of December, 1893. 
They tried me and sent me to jail to await 
results. When they put me in the prisoners 
held what they called a Kangaroo court. 
This was done for the purpose of getting 
money for tobacco. I had no money but 
I had a little watch that was my father's 
which I thought a great deal of and they 
wanted it. I could not part with it in that 
way, so they beat me with a piece of hose 
until I was bruised. 



— 18 — 

The deputy sheriff took me out of the 
jail and put me in the kitchen to wash 
dishes and do odd jobs about the house. 
I soon made friends with the deputy and 
his noble wife and was trusted everywhere. 
One day in March, 1894, the deputy went 
away and I saw a chance to escape, so I 
went as soon as I knew he had gone. I lay 
all that day upon the mountain behind a 
log, until night; then I went over the 
Ozark mountains towards Sulphur Springs. 
The first day out I met a companion by the 
name of James Galagher. We made a fire 
of pine stumps and the blaze went up so 
high that we attracted some moonshiners. 
They thought we were United States 
marshals and were going to shoot us, but 
we finally convinced them that we were all 
right and they let us go. They asked us to 
go to their house and get some breakfast 



— 19 — 

and when we left they gave us a note to 
some farmers along our line of march. We 
were treated well all the way to Sulphur 
Springs. From there we went to Neosho, 
Missouri; then to Webb City, where we 
slept in a lime kiln. We obtained a job 
filling barrels with lime. It took us two 
days and we had five dollars between us; 
we started on again, coming to Joplin, 
Missouri. While in this place I healed a 
Mr. Lee of dropsy. We stopped here for 
several days and then we went to Pitts- 
burg, Kansas; then to Ft. Scott; healed 
some there and did a little work for a man 
by the name of Moody, who kept a stone 
yard. We went to Junction City, Kansas, 
and went into a Latter Day Saints' church 
prayer meeting. I healed several there ; 
was offered money for the healing but I 
would not take it. We traveled on, going 



— 20 — 

through Eldorado, Kansas; Osage Mis- 
sion, and then into the Indian Territory. 

We were on our way to Tahlequah when 
I lost the use of my left leg and was taken 
in and used very kindly by a family of 
Creek Indians. At this juncture my com- 
panion left me. I rested for three days and 
my leg recovered and I was able to go on 
again. While at the Indian's home, 
several Indians were healed. They told it 
to others and I was treated kindly by all 
whom I met. 

I journeyed on until I arrived at South 
McAllister, then I took the Choctaw rail- 
road and started toward Wister, the 
junction of the Frisco railroad, near a 
place called Fanshaw, when I encountered 
a large black bear on a trestle. I looked 
at the bear and the bear looked at me. 
After his bearship came to the conclusion 



— 21 — 

that I did not intend to hurt him he walked 
leisurely into the woods and left me. When 
I arrived at Wister I took the Frisco line 
toward Texas, at a place called Bengal in 
the Choctaw Nation. I was obliged to 
sleep out on the prairie, so I took up my 
abode for the night beside Salt Creek, and 
when I awoke in the morning I was sur- 
rounded by a lot of cotton-mouth moc- 
casins. I could not get out; they were 
running all about me and over me but did 
not harm me. I believe they knew that I 
was their friend. I did not feel afraid for 
the Father was with me. My money had 
given out, but the Indians were very kind 
to me, sharing their small store with me. 
The Indians understood me. They said 
that I was sent to them by the Great Spirit. 
I would go into their houses at all times at 
night, get a blanket and lie down until 



— 22 — 

morning. They would merely look at me 
and let me sleep and when I got up they 
would prepare me such food as they had; 
sometimes they would give me some meal 
to take along with me to last for the day. 
I learned to love them — they were indeed 
friends. They are not savages as some 
people suppose, they possess the warmest 
of hearts. If you love them they will love 
you. Every instinct of their nature is 
divine. They are really true Christians. I 
became one of them and was entertained at 
several of their feasts. I learned a great 
deal about the divine plan in watching 
them in their true simplicity and I noticed 
that they were the real children of nature. 
Every action was an inspiration. I cannot 
say enough in their praise. I went my way 
on to Arthur City, Texas, on the line of the 
Red river. I had no money. The ferry- 



— 23 — 

man would not take me across so I was 
obliged to make a raft of some driftwood 
and I went across safely. I was treated 
very kindly by a Mr. Foley, and was asked 
to stop at his house and rest. I was very 
tired from my long tramp and accepted the 
invitation. The Father showered a blessing 
on him by taking me there to heal his only 
child that had been an invalid from birth. 
I healed her on the third day. I felt that 
my mission was finished when the Father 
gave me victory in healing his child. I went 
forth with the prayers and blessing of the 
father and mother. They said: "I knew 
that my prayers would be answered. God 
sent an instrument in the shape of a 
stranger, ragged and footsore to my gate." 
Other people of the little town heard of 
the news. They followed me and met me 
at Cross Roads with their sick. I gave 



— 24 — 

the blessing to several. From there I went 
to Paris, Texas, but did not. stop. T con- 
tinued on through the Pan Handle country 
until I got into New Mexico at Red River 
Springs. 

Nothing of importance occurred until I 
got on to the Staked Plains. In this barren 
waste I suffered intensely from hunger and 
thirst, there not being a house for fifty 
miles. I was obliged to suffer from hunger, 
thirst and cold. A norther came up and 
lasted for three days. My clothing was 
very thin and worn. All I had was an old 
pair of jean pants, very much the worse for 
wear, no underclothes and a blue jumper. 
I had thrown my shoes away and had my 
feet tied up in rags. The cold at night was 
almost unbearable. I could not lie down 
only for a short time and then I would 
nearly shake to pieces from being so cold. 



— 25 — 

Then I would have to get up and walk 
again. I would pray : "How much longer, 
Father, how much longer ? This is more 
than I can bear. Take me and warm me. 
Guide me to a spring, where I can quench 
my thirst." I would fancy at times that I 
could see beautiful springs in the distance 
and when I got there it was only the sun 
shining on the waste. I was doomed to 
disappointment and I would sit down 
again. Then an inspiration would come to 
me to "be brave, the Father is with thee. 
All will be well in time." At this most 
severe time in thirst I came to the Pecos 
river. But now I could not get to the 
water as it was impossible to descend the 
bluff. I wandered down the river for 
several miles and I thought I could not 
stand it any longer. I thought I would 
have to jump over the bluff into the river, 



— 26 — 

as my tongue had become parched and 
black from thirst. At last J came to where 
the trees were close together. I got down 
on the limbs, lowering myself from branch 
to branch, and had I broken any of them 
I would have been dashed to pieces on the 
rocks fifty feet below. This was a very 
perilous descent, but the water at that 
time was between me and death, so I made 
every attempt to quench my thirst. At 
last I reached the river and I was tempted 
to drink my fill; still I knew that it would 
not be safe for I knew it would cause me a 
great deal of agony; so I dipped up a little 
in my hand and moistened my lips and 
tongue. Then I drank a little occasionally 
until I was all right. If any of my readers 
have ever been there, they know what I am 
writing about. It is easier imagined than 
described. At many places along the 






— 27 — 

banks of the river as I could not walk 
along I had to swim — in places where the 
water came up close to the bluff. I was 
obliged to lie down at night in my wet 
clothing. I had a little corn meal with me 
and I wet it up and made a raw mush. I 
managed to live on this until I arrived at 
Lincoln, New Mexico. There I was sick 
for several days from exposure. The people 
of that place took kindly to me and all my 
wants were supplied. After I recovered, I 
went to White Oaks, New Mexico. There 
I administered the healing blessing to 
several people and they were healed. They 
gave me ten dollars and some food for my 
journey. I came across a fellow traveler. 
I thought from his looks that he was either 
a tramp or a prospector and that he was in 
the same condition as myself. That night 
we slept beside a fire on the mountain. 



— 28 — 

While I was asleep he took the ten dollars 
out of my trousers pocket and made off 
with it. Then I was alone and without 
money again. I went over the Osurro 
range of mountains into Arizona. These 
mountains are infested with all kinds of 
wild animals and venomous reptiles. I 
lay down at night and they came close to 
me but they did not harm me. 

Nothing of importance occurred on this 
journey, only sore feet and a weary body. 
I came to the Atchison, Topeka and Santa 
Fe railroad at Billings. From here I went 
to Flagstaff, - Arizona, and landed there 
very tired and broken up from my long 
journey. I heard of a gentleman that 
wanted a man to herd sheep. I went to 
him and asked him for the place. He 
looked at me, up and down, and I do not 
believe that he formed a very good opinion 



— 29 — 

of me as I was a very tough looking cus- 
tomer. He thought I looked too bad to 
employ; but, however, I persuaded him to 
try me for a while because I knew that I 
could fill the bill. I remained with him a 
little over three months and saved a few 
dollars and started on my journey again 
toward San Diego, California, and took a 
steamer for San Francisco. I remained 
in that city but a short time. I next went 
to Puento, California, and treated about 
thirty people. This was the first time 
that I had treated so many at one 
time. They were all sitting on the 
benches of a private lawn. From there I 
went to Santa Barbara, then into Lower 
California, then back into Arizona, follow- 
ing the line of the Southern Pacific rail- 
road. The towns are all a very long 
distance apart and while walking on the 



— 30 — 

Southern Pacific, walking on the ties and 
hot sand made my feet very sore and I sat 
down to rest. I thought that I could never 
go to the next town, as it was about fifty 
miles. I sat down on the end of a tie and 
asked the Father to heal my feet so that I 
could continue my journey and I happened 
to look around and espied a shoe box. I 
went over to it and found it was full of 
food. I was very hungry and suffering for 
something to eat. This seemed to be a 
blessing bestowed on me from the Father. 
I sat down and ate the food and then I 
continued on my journey and my feet were 
as well as they had ever been. I consider 
this a direct answer to prayer. 



CHAPTER III. 

This is the way I account for the box of 
food. A train had passed me an hour 
before and they had seen me walking along 
the track and knowing it was a long way 
between towns thought I might want 
something to eat, threw the box off the 
car, knowing that I should pass that way 
and pick it up. I continued on into the 
Huma desert and was without food and 
drink for several , days until I found the 
cactus. I lived on its fruit for food and 
drank its juice to quench my thirst; but I 
came to a bare place where the cactus had 
been destroyed for miles and could find 
nothing to quench my thirst. The sand was 
so hot that it scorched my feet. This was a 
terrible journey, as the cactus thorns were 



■/ 



— 32 — 

thick and I had got them into my feet. My 
water had run out that I had supplied in 
my canteen and I could not get any more. 
I was at this time without water three days 
and three nights. The suffering that I 
went through with was more than tongue 
could tell. I wandered about several days 
in this condition and at last I was dis- 
covered from the United States signal box. 
The men in the service came to my rescue 
just in time, as I had lain down and had 
given up all hope. It was at this period 
that I learned that money was valueless: 
that if the wealth of the universe had been 
mine, I would freely have given it for a 
drink of water. When I arrived at the 
signal box, I found that I had contracted 
what they called the salt famine. They 
were obliged to tie me up to keep me away 
from the water. I was almost a maniac, 



— 33 — 

and all they dared to do was to moisten my 
tongue with a sponge. While in the desert 
some very wonderful things occurred to 
me. I had a vision of the twelve disciples. 
Their faces appeared as if they were real, 
and the character of each one, as we read 
in the Scriptures, was reflected in their 
countenances. I learned a great deal from 
this. I saw the face of Thomas, the 
doubter. I could see the sneer on his face. 
Next came St. John, the beloved disciple, 
with his soft, dreamy eyes and clear cut 
features, with a look of benevolence and 
love. Trust was displayed in every feature. 
Next came Peter, with his lack of faith, and 
Judas, the deceitful one. These were all 
shown to me in their true character. After 
I had recovered sufficiently, the signal men 
took me to a railroad station and sent me 
to Phoenix, Arizona. I started out from 



— 34 — 

there to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I 
had a hard time after leaving Phoenix. My 
provisions ran out, hence the beginning of 
the fast of forty-one days. I only partook 
of a few glasses of milk. 

In coming into Albuquerque, I went 
into a Mexican adobe house and asked for 
a drink of water. While the Mexican 
woman went to the spring I noticed a 
child lying on a shake-down in the corner. 
I went and took up the child in my arms. 
I did not know that it could not walk. 
When the mother came in I put the child 
down and it ran over to its mother. The 
woman dropped the bucket of water from 
her hand and ran out of the house shouting 
that the Messiah had come. My hair and 
beard had grown very long. I was very 
thin and careworn from travel and hunger. 
I looked more like a phantom than a man. 



— 35 — 

The news of the child's healing spread 
like wild-fire and when I arrived in "old 
town" Albuquerque, which is the Mexican 
part of the city, the Mayor, Juan Garcia, 
had me treat several Mexicans and 
Indians that had heard of the healing of 
the child. There were about two hundred 
or more. This was my first public meeting. 
I was afraid to treat so many for fear the 
power would not stand by me but they 
forced me into it. With fear and trembling, 
I went to work, feeling that the Father 
was always with me in my time of need. 
A great many of them were healed. Then 
the white people came. I had a few short 
notices in the paper up to that time. 
Finally, Fitz Mac of the Rocky Mountain 
News came to see me and found me at J. 
A. Summer's home, where I ate the hearty 



— 36 — 

supper which ended the forty-one days' 
fast. 

This was about the middle of August, 
1895. Mr. Fitz Mac thought the meal 
would kill me after having fasted so long. 
I left the next day for Denver accompanied 
by Mr. Ed Fox, an ex-alderman of that 
city, to gaze once more upon the place that 
I had left two years previous. 



CHAPTER IV. 

On the train from Albuquerque to Den- 
ver I slept nearly all the way. At Las 
Vegas, New Mexico, and other towns 
along the way, there were large crowds 
of people at the railroad stations to 
see the healer. I arrived at Denver and 
stopped at the National Hotel. The people 
found me out and I had to leave there and 
went up to Mr. Hauenstein's home, a blind 
builder in Fairmont Avenue, and there I 
rested for two weeks. From there I went 
to Ed L. Fox's home on Witter street, 
North Denver, and on the 13th day of Sep- 
tember, 1895, I began the public ministry 
that the Father had given me to do. I 
stood on a low platform that had been 
placed there to raise me above the people. 



— 38 — 

I treated all the way from one thousand to 
four thousand daily. I also blessed hand- 
kerchiefs that were handed to me and 
those that came through the mails. 

The wife of Mr. E. Dickinson, general 
manager of the U. P. R. R., was healed of 
deafness; for this healing he chartered a 
special train to go over the road to bring 
in all the sick of the employes. The 
crowds were very great every day. The 
people waited for days to get in line. The 
city built me a fence three blocks long and 
a narrow sidewalk to keep them in line. 
Places were sold in the line for fifty dol- 
lars. Some people, rather than to wait, 
would buy one another's places. They 
would form in line as early as 5 o'clock in 
the morning. I worked very steady and 
would sit up until very late at night bless- 
ing handkerchiefs. My mail was brought 



— 39 — 

in a wagon and when I left there were over 
fifty thousand letters remaining unan- 
swered. The Fox family were very good 
to me. I could not have been used better. 
They got me everything in the shape of 
eatables and the best of wine was always 
on the desk. I should not have left so 
soon, but there were some men that were 
selling the blessed handkerchiefs. I had 
heard that they had been arrested and 
they wanted me for a witness. I did not 
believe in lawsuits. I did not know but 
what some of my friends might be impli- 
cated, so I thought that it would be best 
to leave there. 

There was a special car on the track 
ready to take me to Chicago, 111. I did not 
want that to do the Father's work with, 
so at 4 o'clock in the morning, November 
13, 1895, I walked through the crowd and 



— 40 — 

took by-roads until I got back to Albu- 
querque, New Mexico. I only entertained 
three people while at Mr. Fox's house. 
Myron Reed was one; Judge Kerr, of 
Santa Fe, was another, and Mrs. Col. Fisk. 
Several others tried to come in, but I 
refused. When I left I pinned a note to 
the pillow, addressed to Mr. Fox. When 
I arrived at Albuquerque, a friend gave me 
the white pony that I called Butte, for he 
was a beauty, and just as sensible as a 
human being. 

Butte and I were inseparable friends 
and he was my only companion. I used to 
talk to him as if he were a person. I believe 
he understood me. We ate and slept to- 
gether ; when they could not accommodate 
me in the house I would lie in the stall 
with Butte; before he would lie down he 
would look for me, then he would lie down 



— 41 — 

at the other end of the stall. I often lay 
close up to his back to keep warm. The 
poor little fellow never got tired of his task. 
He carried me thirty and forty miles a day 
until we got down to Dattil,' New Mexico. 
In looking for a place to stop we saw a 
light in the window, that being the only 
house for miles. The night was very cold. 
We went to the house, which turned out 
to be the Hermosillo ranch. Mrs. Ada 
Morley Jarrett came to the door and let me 
in. As soon as I got inside she knew me 
and said: "This is the healer from Den- 
ver." She had seen me there. This was in 
January, 1896. I stopped there three 
months and was well entertained by these 
people. Mrs. Jarrett and I talked together 
a great deal, as all I had to do was to play 
with little Carl Gardner, one of the ranch- 
men's boy. Butte enjoyed himself im- 



— 42 — 

mensely and got quite saucy and fat. He 
got too proud to have anything to do with 
me. He thought I had found another com- 
panion in little Carl. While at this place 
I dictated a book of my life to Mrs. Jarrett. 
Afterwards she asked me if she could pub- 
lish it. It was called "The Life' of the 
Harp in the Hands of the Harper," but in 
some respects it was not right. It stated 
that I begged, but I never did. When I 
was asked to eat, I ate ; and when not I did 
without. I left Mrs. Jarrett's in March. 
The morning I left she said to me : "I ex- 
pect this is the last breakfast we shall eat 
together." I had Butte saddled and wait- 
ing, but did not get started until about 4 
o'clock that afternoon. Mrs. Jarrett offered 
me some money but I would not take it 
and she urged me to wait until the next 
morning, but I declined. I told her that 



— 43 — 

the Father would look after me and bid 
her good-bye. A short way up the trail 
and I was out of sight in a few minutes. 
About four days after, my pony drank 
some alkali water through the night and 
died. This was more than I could stand. 
I did not know what I would do without 
Butte. I knelt down beside his dead body 
and prayed to the Father to give Butte 
back to me. I could not realize that he 
was dead. My only friend had gone when 
I lost my pony. He was my honest friend. 
Ah! bow I wept. I never felt before so 
much alone. All my suffering was not so 
great as this. I thought how we had 
walked together in the wilds; how I had 
shared my lunches with him; how he had 
carried me over the mountains and thro* 
valleys and never tired of his task. I wept 
by his side until I found that he was really 



y 



— 44 — 

dead, so I had to continue my journey 
alone again. I walked to the nearest rail- 
road station and the conductor gave me a 
ride and I got back to El Paso. I kept 
riding and walking until I got to Wheel- 
ing, West Virginia ; touching Kansas City, 
St. Louis and Cincinnati on the way. I 
wanted to get east, so I did not stop to 
heal on this trip. 

When I got to Wheeling I met with an 
accident, being hurt in a railway wreck just 
outside of Parkersburg, the train, running 
into an open switch. I was unconscious 
for several hours but experienced no pain, 
although my left hip was badly broken. 
My hip being so badly smashed I remained 
in a hospital at Wheeling for three 
months. I remained there comfortably 
until they discovered who I was ; then they 
turned me out. I made my way down the 



— 45 — 

river towards Portsmouth, O., selling- little 
notions to make a living, I having to walk 
with crutches. At Portsmouth there had 
been a church building blown up and I 
was arrested as a suspect and placed in 
prison and was kept there for several days. 
I was taken into the mayor's office and 
questioned, but rinding nothing against me 
they let me go. Being thus released they 
sent me across the river, for fear I would 
tell some of the citizens about the way I 
was treated while in their hands. I went 
from there to Cincinnati, O., and was put 
in the "Good Samaritan'' hospital. I 
healed some of the people there and was 
turned out. Sister Mary Michael, one of 
the nurses, was very kind to me. She and 
one of the patients gave me one dollar. So 
I now went to Paducah, Ky. Here I went 
to a brick yard, lay down to sleep and to 



— 46- 

get warm. I was arrested and got thirty 
days, being taken for a vagrant, and put to 
work on the street. One of the newspaper 
men got me out of jail. My leg at this time 
was getting stronger and I walked to Ful- 
ton, Ky. Here I healed some bricklayers 
that were working there. From here I 
■ j went to Jackson, Tenn., and gave a week 
to healing meetings and hundreds were 
healed. This was my first public demon- 
stration after leaving Denver. This was 
in the fall of 1896. The following Decem- 
ber I went to Helena, Ark., and while there 
I got in with a man that had a sail boat and 
he was going to Cuba. The name of the 
boat was "Clara." I went with him and 
we held meetings in all the little towns 
down the Mississippi river until we came 
to Greenville, Miss., when we tied up to 
the banks and in the morning we were high 



— 47 — 

and dry and fifty feet from the water, the 
floods having receded. I met another 
young man and we held meetings in Green- 
ville. I left there, walking across the coun- 
try toward Memphis, Tenn. The water 
was very deep in some places. While 
wandering thro' the country we came to a 
saw mill in the forest. We stopped there 
for the night, continuing on our journey 
the next morning. While here in the forest 
a deer ran out of the woods, came up to 
me, lapped my hand and then ran his way. 

Our travel through the forest was not 
very pleasant. We saw large bears and 
wild cats, but they did not seem to mind 
us in any way. We arrived in Memphis 
hungry and footsore. This was during the 
Mardi Gras, March 1897, an d there were 
thousands of people in the city. Not caring 
to attract any attention we took a walk out 



— 48 — 

into the country, going to the outskirts of 
the city we found a beautiful spring to get 
a drink, but there was no cup. 

I went to a cottage near by and asked a 
lady to lend me a cup. As she opened the 
door I saw a man lying on a bed. We went 
to the spring to quench our thirst. We 
returned the cup to the lady. I asked her 
what was the matter with the man. She 
told me that he had been sick for two years 
with chronic dysentery and was very low. 
I told the lady that I could heal him with 
the power the Father had given me. She 
invited me into the house and I went to the 
sick man and asked him to give me his 
hands and I would treat him. When I said 
this he looked up into my face and said: 
"Is this Mr. Schlatter?" I said, yes. He 
arose up in his bed and looked upon me 
with an expression that was divine. Then 



-4.9- 

he said to me: "What is the matter? 
Have you come down from the clouds?" 
I said no, not that I knew of. Then he told 
me of a gentleman who had just left that 
was telling about me and that I had healed 
two of his sisters in Denver ; and if he could 
see me he knew he would be healed. He 
had been an old veteran of the Confeder- 
ate army, losing one of his limbs while in 
battle. The next morning this man was 
well and went to Mr. W. M. Akins's resi- 
dence, at 33 Exchange street, to see me. 
One would never dreamed that it was the 
same man of the evening- before. While 
we were in Memphis the floods came and 
the river overflowed its banks, making it 
very wide. It was estimated to be seventy 
miles wide. White people and negroes 
were coming into the city, as Memphis was 
the highest place along the river. I gave 



— 50 — 

a public meeting on the square, near a 
little park. There were - many people 
healed and the excitement grew to fever 
heat; the negroes blocked in about me so 
that the white people could not get to me. 
The negroes thought the world was com- 
ing to an end. They shouted and gave 
praises to God and said "that Christ had 
come as he had said he would in the 
clouds." One old colored woman said: 
"I know that is Him ; He does not look like 
other white folks. He done come sure as 
you live." There were such immense 
crowds of people that it stopped the busi- 
ness traffic of the city. The mayor rented 
the Auditorium for me to hold my meeting 
in. The first healing that occurred here 
was a child 9 years old that had not spoken 
since he was two years old. He was 
healed instantly and spoke. When he spoke 



— 51 — 

the people arose in their seats and came 
forward to the stage to see and talk with 
the child. People in the gallery were so 
excited that they slid down the supporting 
posts. A Mrs. King, who was leader of the 
Christian Scientists, came forward and pre- 
sented me with an elegant bouquet of 
flowers. I did not remain much longer in 
Memphis, as I had found my mother's 
whereabouts and wanted to see her, as we 
had been separated for more than twenty- 
five years. I found her living four miles 
from Nashville at a place called Bordeaux, 
in Tennessee. You can imagine the meet- 
ing between my mother and me after so 
long a separation. My mother had been 
anxiously waiting all these years and had a 
feeling that I would return to her some 
day. The meeting with my mother was 
more than I could bear. I was so overjoyed 



— 52 — 

that I could not speak; to think that I 
should meet my mother again that I had 
mourned as dead. The Centennial Exposi- 
tion was going on at this time in Nashville. 
The promoters wanted me to go inside 
upon the grounds and hold meetings, but 
this I refused. They offered me large sums 
of money to induce me, but I did not feel 
this way inclined. I continued meetings 
in the city and the crowds were so great 
that the police were obliged to keep me 
moving to different points. For this pur- 
pose I was given a fine carriage by a Mr. 
Boning, a friend of my mother. My half- 
brother, T. W. Martin, acted as driver. We 
did not remain here long as I felt an in- 
spiration to go again. 



CHAPTER V. 

A physician from Memphis by the name 
of Benno A. Hollenburg came for me to go 
with him to Cleveland, Ohio. I was stop- 
ping with him for a short time and one 
morning at the breakfast table some gen- 
tlemen read in the paper of Francis Schlat- 
ter's polished bones being found in the 
foot hills of the Sierra Madras of Mexico. 

Dr. Hollenberg said: "Indeed, I was 
of the opinion that Mr. Schlatter is very 
much alive. Gentlemen, allow me to intro- 
duce you to Mr. Schlatter/' That day all 
the reporters of the daily papers came 
down to interview me and the story was 
contradicted in the Associated Press. 
There were some of the reporters on the 
papers that were sent to Denver to report 



— 54 — 

the work there; that they were well ac- 
quainted with me. They traced out the 
story and got all the particulars concern- 
ing it. There was a party of engineers 
found some bones of a man in the foot 
hills of the mountains. As they had not 
heard of me and did not know where I 
was they thought I was dead. As they do 
not get papers very often in that country, 
they thought this was a fine opportunity to 
make money. "We will take the bones with 
a saddle and a little bible into El Paso and 
tell George W. Stanley of the "El Paso 
Times" and will make a fortune out of it." 
They thought they could use these bones 
as they used the relic of St. Ann's. It first 
came out in the El Paso Times. 

I never carried a bible; my saddle was 
not a new one and I never wore under- 
clothing. Well, from Cleveland I went to 



Canton, O., the home of Ex-President Mc- 
Kinley, where the wonderful healing of 
Senator T. C. Snyder took place, whose 
right hip was injured fourteen years before, 
the right leg having withered and was 
useless. He was fully restored by one 
treatment. I held meetings at Canton 
and the crowds were very great. 

I treated about two thousand people 
every day; and during the twenty-eight 
days I was there I blessed fifty thousand 
people. While in Canton I fasted eighteen 
days. This was the last fast I have taken, 
as I do not think now that it is necessary 
to spiritual development. While in Can- 
ton I was invited to go to Brady's Lake on 
Sunday. It was there that Mrs. Margaret 
Ferris, the widow of the inventor of the 
famous Ferris wheel, was healed. Mrs. 



— 56 — 

Ferris was the first lady that I had met, up 
to this time, that I thought anything espe- 
cially of. It so happened that we were to- 
gether a great deal. It was after the death 
of her husband and she was troubled in 
grief. So, I would take her out when I got 
through with my afternoon meetings. We 
seemed to become attached to each other 
and finally we were engaged. I procured 
a license to marry her and made all the 
arrangements at Massillon, O., but after 
thinking it over, knowing it would create 
too great a sensation at this time, we con- 
cluded to postpone the wedding until a 
more quiet time. Mrs. Ferris went to visit 
some friends. I accidentally went to Pitts- 
burg, Penn., and went to the Victoria hotel 
and when I went to register I saw Mrs. 
Ferris' name on the book. I sent up my 
card, but she had gone out. I saw her the 



— 57 — 

next day and we talked the matter over 
again and we decided to be married now. I 
went to get Rev. Frank Taimage but could 
not find him ; so I went to see Dr. Sproles 
of Allegheny, Pa. He came to the hotel, 
but he would not perform the ceremony on 
account of the prominence of the parties. 
The newspapers had published a story of 
an elopement of the healer and Mrs. Ferris. 
This incident created so much notoriety 
that we were obliged to postpone it again. 

The Press Association gave me a ban- 
quet and there were one hundred and fifty 
newspaper men present from all parts of 
the east to write up the story of the wed- 
ding, as they supposed it would be a grand 
affair, and Mrs. Ferris was worth her mil- 
lions. We did not attend the banquet but 
kept in seclusion. Some of the reporters 
were ambitious enough to seek us. One 



— 58 — 

found my room and climbed through the 
transom. I admired his courage and gave 
him an interview. He was a young Eng- 
lishman and had not been in this country 
long. He was educated for a clergy- 
man in the Church of England. I told him 
that I wanted a companion and asked him 
if he would go with me. He told me 
that he would as soon as the month was 
up and he could get some one to rill his 
position. This gave me faith in him. I 
could see that he was true to his calling, 
whatever it might be. While I was in Pitts- 
burg the crowds were growing larger every 
day at Canton waiting for me to come 
back. On going to Canton there were 
thousands of people waiting to see me. 
There was not a room available at the 
hotels or boarding houses. The papers 
began to publish so much about the heal- 









— 59 — 

ing and the supposed elopement that I con- 
cluded to leave. In the meantime I had 
promised to go to Chicago as I had in- 
tended to hold meetings there. I had made 
this promise two years previous. To get 
away from the newspaper men we went to 
Chicago by boat. At our first meeting we 
met the gentleman that was instrumental 
in bringing us there. His name was G. C. 
McAllister. He was the first one healed. 
He had Locomotor Ataxia. We opened at 
Manhattan Beach, Seventy-second street 
and Bond avenue ; and on Sunday, August 
29, 1897, it was said that we had forty-five 
thousand people at the meeting. It was 
said that if we had them in line they would 
reach from Manhattan Beach to the City 
Hall, a distance of nine miles. Through the 
courtesy of Chief Kepley we were given 



— 60 — 
twenty-three police to take care of the 
people and prevent crowding. 

The press representatives had a table in 
front of the platform to watch the proceed- 
ings and every case of healing was re- 
corded. The most wonderful case of heal- 
ing was that of -J. H. Farley, a wholesale 
merchant of the city, who had been para- 
lyzed for seven years, not being able to 
walk or talk. He was instantly healed. The 
next day I was summoned to appear in 
court for practicing medicine without a 
license. I was not practicing medicine. 
They did this to keep the crowd away. The 
city prosecuting attorney, Hon. H. S. Tay- 
lor, and several prominent lawyers of the 
city, volunteered to defend me from the 
charges, made by the Board of Health, so 
the case was dismissed. 






CHAPTER VI. 

We went to Aurora, 111., for a few days ; 
then from there to Bowling Green, O., and 
remained a few days. Then we went to 
Canton for a rest that I very much needed. 
I had laid hands on nearly one hundred 
thousand people from the 28th of July to 
November 1st, 1897. I left Canton for 
New Castle, Penn. ; from there to Zanes- 
ville, O., where the wonderful healing of 
Laura Dickson, a little girl nine years old, 
who had been born blind, took place. 

When I went there the people seemed to 
be against me, but healing the blind child 
created a furore and everyone was my 
friend. The blind child instantly received 
her eyesight. There was a large crowd on 
the street, the day being very cold, and it 
was snowing hard. The mother succeeded 



— 62 — 

to get to me with the child. I laid my 
hands on her eyes and she could see. The 
people tried her in every way, pointing out 
the houses and what ever was in sight. Of 
course, the child did not know what to call 
them, so she named them anything that 
came into her mind. 

Some very amusing incidents were 
always taking place. There was a repre- 
sentative of the local paper present and he 
was unfortunate enough to be red-headed. 
One of the reporters asked her what color 
his hair was. She said it was green. An- 
other amusing incident that occurred. A 
lady came edging through the crowd. A 
g-entleman asked her what she wanted; 
that she looked healthy enough. She told 
him that she was not sick, but that she was 
going up to Schlatter to get a new dispo- 
sition. Thousands of handkerchiefs were 



— 63 — 

sent to me from all parts of the world as 
the healing was heralded everywhere 
through the press. I was obliged to stop 
at Columbus, O., to bless and mail the 
handkerchiefs. It took me one month's 
steady work. I now went to Springfield, O. 
At my first meeting the weather was very 
cold. It was snowing and blowing terribly. 
I sat on my platform without an overcoat 
or hat. As I did not speak a word it took 
me sometime to gather a crowd, but the 
people passing by were interested in what 
would happen. Soon a little boy came 
along and stood on the corner ; looking into 
a gentleman's face, he asked what I was 
doing. He replied by saying: "I guess he 
is trying to make summer come." This is 
where the wonderful healing of Mr. J. H. 
Waldron took place. He had lost the use 
of one limb, but was instantaneously 



l/ 



— 64 — 

healed. He was a state representative of 
the Rand, McNally map publishers. He 
lived at Bellefontaine, O. I now went to 
Piqua, O., for a few days. I was now 
making haste to go to Atlantic City, N. J. 
In passing through on the B. & O. R. R. 
we were requested to stop off at Cumber- 
land, Md. This is where W. S. Gilbert 
joined me, that I spoke of in a previous 
chapter, being the newspaper man that 
climbed through the transom. I remained 
in Cumberland for one week. It rained in 
torrents all the time, but it did not prevent 
the people from coming to my meetings. 
For blocks the street was a solid mass of 
umbrellas. I treated about five thousand 
people in the rain and I would be wet com- 
pletely through. We then proceeded to 
Baltimore, Md., and started a meeting for 
one week at Gwinn Oak Park. We then 



— 65 — 

went to Atlantic City, where I treated 
several notables, among whom was Prince 
Albert of Belgium. We remained here for 
forty-one days, holding our meeting by the 
seashore, on Ocean Pier. This was in 
May, during the Spanish and American 
war and they expected to see a fleet of 
Spanish warships come up at any moment. 
It came out in a Philadelphia paper that if 
they came in sight all they would have to 
do would be to send Schlatter and he 
would heal them of any disposition to do 
harm. 

After we had been there about ten days 
the crowds began to gather immensely. 
On the 3rd of July I treated nine thousand 
and six people according to actual count.. 
This was the hardest day's work I ever 
did. I was kept at it from nine in the morn- 
ing until ten at night without any inter- 



— 66 — 

mission or anything to eat. This was the 
only time in my life that I was tired after 
a healing demonstration. After a few min- 
utes rest a party of gentlemen who had 
attended a banquet at a summer house on 
the pier, came to me to be treated. 

They came to be healed of desire of hold- 
• ing office, as there were senators and con- 
gressmen among them. One of the party 
said that all the political aspirations were 
knocked out of him and he would never 
run for office again. After a very success- 
ful season at this delightful seashore, I had 
a leading to go west again. I arrived in 
Philadelphia on the evening of the 6th of 
August and went to the Bingham hotel. I 
was weary from my work and did not rest 
very much that night. I had a present 
ment that something was goingsto happen. 
Mr. Gilbert was not with me. He stopped 



— 67 — 

on the way to attend to some business and 
intended to come the next day. The next 
morning I was going down to the Penn- 
sylvania railroad station to meet some 
friends. Just as I got to the Public build- 
ing on Broad and Market street I saw a 
very large crowd collected. I went to see 
what was going on, and they had a poor 
fellow hemmed in whom they had accused 
of being a Spaniard. I could not stand 
it to see him misused, so I spoke in his 
behalf and addressed the crowd in these 
words: "My friends, do you know that 
there is one that is above us that marks 
even the sparrow's fall? He is the God of 
the Spaniard as well as of the American. 
We are all a people of one God and we 
should not be prejudiced against a for- 
eigner. If any of you had been born 
in Spain you would have been a 



— 68 — 

Spaniard; to oppose any man we put 
a barrier before us that is a stumbling 
block to our civilization." At this 
juncture a large Irish policeman came up 
to me and said : "You are a Spaniard are 
ye. I'll take care of ye and put ye where 
ye won't 'ave anything to do with any more 
Spaniards. It's meself that knows the 
loikes of ye's." He took me up to the 
court and charged me with being a Span- 
ish spy and they were going to try me for 
that offense. So they bound me over to 
court. When the trial came off one of the 
most prominent attorneys of the city vol- 
unteered his services to defend me ; during 
the progress of the trial the building was 
struck by lightning seven times and there 
was a fire in the basement My attorney 
arose and made a short speech to the judge 
and they asked me why I had made a 






— 69 — 

speech in defense of a nation that we were 
at war with. I told them that I thought 
it was a good opportunity to say a word 
about the one thing that is and always has 
been a barrier to civilization, prejudice. I 
was honorably discharged. The manager 
of Bradenburg's Museum now offered my 
manager one thousand dollars a day to 
appear at their museum. This made me 
feel indignant that any one should make 
such a proposition to me and I left him. 
We now went to Reading, Penn., for a few 
days and held our meetings at Carsonia 
Park. The weather was so hot and rainy 
that we only remained four days, going 
west again, stopping at Newark, O., three 
days. From here we went to Mansfield, 
O. Here a lady was healed instantly who 
had not walked for 22 years. I treated 
her about 4 o'clock in the afternoon and 



— 70 — 

that evening she walked up stairs to bed. 
The next day she came down to the meet- 
ing. The next day I was called to see a 
young man that they told me was dying. 
I went to his home and treated him. I 
raised him. He was well the next day, 
being fully recovered to health. Owing 
to these healings the excitement was very 
great, for they were very prominent people 
in their city. The people came so fast that 
it was impossible for me to attend to them 
and we left, as I was anxious to go south 
for the winter, for I had a leading to hold 
meetings in some of the southern cities. 






CHAPTER VII. 

Our first stop was at Evansville, Ind., 
where we received a grand welcome from 
Mayor Akin. The board of aldermen told 
my manager, Mr. Gilbert, that we could 
hold our meetings in any part of the city, 
so we chose the corner of Main street. 
The news of the work I had done in At- 
lantic City and Mansfield had reached 
there ahead of us, and as soon as I took my 
place upon the box on the corner in one 
half hour we were greeted by thousands of 
people. Curiosity seemed to reign and but 
few came for the blessing, but the next day 
we were met by a host of people that were 
seeking health, knowing that man's ex- 
tremity is God's opportunity. The most 
remarkable healings that I had achieved 



— 72 — 

up to this time were three blind men, all 
following- each other in line, came up to me 
for the blessing and they were all instantly 
healed. They all received their sight. We 
learned the names of two of them, C. L. 
Hollis and Fred Munser. Both of them 
were stone blind for several years. I placed 
my fingers on Mr. Hollis' eyes and when I 
removed them he was overjoyed in receiv- 
ing his sight. "Why, my sight is almost 
perfect," he said. "I can read the sign on 
the store there. I never saw better." He 
went away rejoicing and singing the 
praises of the man who had given him his 
sight. This incident and others that fol- 
lowed created very great excitement and 
caused a regular furore on the street. The 
streets were blockaded for blocks away. 
People were crowding through for blocks 
away to get up to the platform to receive 



— 73 — 

the blessing. I blessed from nine hundred 
to fifteen hundred daily and nearly all of 
them were instantly healed. Several of the 
leading business men of the city assisted 
my manager in getting the people in line. 
After two weeks of the most extremely 
successful meetings I ever held I returned 
to Nashville, Tenn., to rest for a short 
time. When leaving a party of friends 
accompanied us to Chattanooga, where 
we remained two weeks. We were very 
much amused at the remarks of the 
negroes. 

One old negro in the crowd came up to 
me on crutches, but he did not have faith 
enough to take a treatment. A colored 
woman went to him and said : "Why don't 
you go up to dat dar doctah. He is a 
hoodoo doctah and will cure you of that 
misery." "I can't gather my courage, 



— 74 — 

sistah. I wish I could, caus I'se suffered 
powerful." The woman said: "Do go; 
you know what the Scriptures say about de 
man dat cured de sick; dat man, sure 
enough, looks like one of dem dat followed 
Christ and I believe he is one of dem dat 
followed, and just to think you have had 
good religious struction all yo' life. Is you 
gwine to be like Petah ? That is the wurst 
of yo' foolish niggahs, yo' haint got no 
faith." After a great deal of persuasion 
on the part of the old negress, he came up 
to be blessed, and he being healed it sur- 
prised the old negress so much that she 
started to preach all over the city and sent 
all who would come to be healed. We left 
Chattanooga with the blessings of the 
white and colored people for our success in 
Atlanta, Ga., which was to be our next 
stop. The people of that city seemed to be 






— 75 — 

somewhat skeptical, and we did not have 
much of a crowd at any of our meetings. 
Only two healings of any note took place. 
One was a man by the name of McAfee, 
who had lost one of his limbs during the 
civil war and had lost the use of the other 
one. He was healed standing upon the 
limb that had been powerless. I gave him 
a pair of crutches that I had taken from a 
cripple whom I had healed. He was a 
well known character about the city, as he 
used to crawl about on his knees and sell 
articles to make his living. The other one 
was Mr. Manley, chief of police, who was 
healed from a severe case of cancer of the 
stomach. This was the only city up to this 
time where I had any trouble with rowdies. 
One came up and abused us in a shocking 
manner and said : "If you are divine throw 
this brick up into the air and cause it to 



— 76 — 

stay there." This was a very uncommon 
thing, as we generally have perfect still- 
ness at the demonstration, not even the 
noise of the horse's feet. The little chil 
dren that gathered around the platform 
and the dogs that came with them came 
up and sat at my feet. We were there 
during the Jubilee after the Spanish war 
in December, 1898. We were healing at 
the time the procession passed the presi- 
dent's carriage. President McKinley was 
accompanied by Judge Day, Clark Howell, 
the managing editor of the Atlanta Consti- 
tution, and Secretary Cortelyou. The most 
of these gentlemen were in the carriages 
and raised their hats as they passed by the 
healing meeting. We soon went to Mari 
etta, Ga., arriving there on Christmas day, 
when a very funny incident occurred. My 
manager, Mr. Gilbert, happened to be red- 






headed. The school boys dressed up in red 
wigs and mustaches to impersonate him 
and one boy had on a brown wig of long 
hair and a long beard. They marched 
around us with tin horns and stood next 
to us and the boys that were with them 
formed in line and they went through the 
motions the same as I. Some of the people 
that were strangers did not know which 
was Schlatter, the healer, and his compan- 
ions, or the boys, the make-up was so per- 
fect. From here we went to Anniston, 
Ala., and remained several days. There 
were several U. S. troops stationed in 
Anniston and I healed nearly all the sol- 
diers that were sick at that time. I was 
now thinking about going north again, but 
my manager thought we ought to go to 
Birmingham, as they were expecting us 
and he did not think it was prudent to 



— 78 — 

disappoint them, so I concluded to go, as 
there had been a message sent in the day 
before stating that we were coming. We 
were met by a large crowd at the depot. 
We went right from the station and healed 
a lady suffering with rheumatism before we 
opened the meeting on the street. We 
opened our meeting at 3 o'clock that after- 
noon and were greeted by a very large 
crowd of people and in half an hour the 
streets were packed. I laid hands on five 
hundred people at this meeting and the 
next morning at 10 o'clock I treated over 
eight hundred, there being many negroes 
among them. By the time of the afternoon 
meeting the crowd had increased to im- 
mense proportions. Many sick people came 
in on the trains from all points in the 
south. The blessings of God were show- 
ered- upon us abundantly. The people were 



— 79 — 

very wonderfully healed. The following 
day we were met by over twenty thousand 
people. It was impossible for me to treat 
all that came to be healed. There were 
many who did not have the courage to 
come up to me on the street for the bless- 
ing and they would follow me to the hotel 
and try to get into my room. In order to 
get the rest that was absolutely necessary 
we were obliged to bar the door with a 
board nailed across. The bolts and locks 
would not keep the people out, regardless 
of a large placard placed on the door 
stating that the healer could not be seen 
only at the public meetings. After the 
close of every meeting the carriages were 
standing in a row for me to go and see 
those who were too sick to leave their 
homes. On the fourth day of our stay 
the city was swarmed with people, street 



— 80 — 

venders of all kinds coming in having heard 
of the crowds that had assembled. The 
city authorities, knowing that I had been 
the cause of bringing the crowds into the 
city, concluded to get me off the streets, 
so they sent the deputy sheriff to tell me 
to close my demonstrations. My compan- 
ion told him that he could do nothing. 
"When Schlatter has a leading to heal in a 
city he would not stop until the Father 
called him away to another city or town. 
Mr. Schlatter does nothing but good to all. 
He does not disobey the laws of the coun- 
try, but respects them, for he knows that 
justice rules the universe and that justice 
misplaced is breaking the law. Our mis- 
sion in your city is to heal the sick and 
bring prosperity to your citizens as you 
can see. The railroads are reaping a har- 
vest; the hotels and boarding houses are 



— 81 — 

full. There are several thousand strangers 
in your city every day. The sick people 
that the city was obliged to support 
are being healed and being made self- 
supporting and then you request me to 
move on. You can arrest Mr. Schlatter 
but that will not stop him. He is here to 
do the bidding of the power over which he 
has no control." They sent the police to 
arrest me but they would not do it. They 
said that they would throw up their jobs 
first before they would arrest me. Then 
they concluded to pass an ordinance 
against the street venders to prevent them 
selling their wares, Schlatter included. The 
ordinance was passed and brought the 
healer under its bans and they requested 
me to stop my meetings, but I kept on. 
The mayor sent for my manager to come 
up to his office. He went and answered his 



— 82 — 

questions. He was asked if it was so that 
we had letters from many prominent men 
and women in this country. Mr. Gilbert 
produced some of the letters and he tele- 
graphed these people and he received a 
hearty indorsement. The mayor said that 
this was all good but there had been passed 
the ordinance prohibiting anything of this 
nature to go on the street. Mr. Gilbert left 
him and passed a petition which was signed 
by the most respected people in the city, 
among whom was Mr. Woodward, presi- 
dent of the Woodward Coal, Iron and 
Coke Co., Mr. Schloss of the Schloss Coal 
and Iron Furnace Co., the presidents of 
the First and Second National banks, Ex- 
Gov. Cobb, the ambassador to Sweden, and 
many gentlemen of note, and many leading 
citizens. This was taken to the mayor and 
he did not know what to think, and he con- 



— 83 — 

eluded to come to the meeting. In the 
meantime I had been taken to Alderman 
McKnight's house, his wife having been 
an invalid for two years and could not 
move in bed. When her husband came 
home she met him at the door and sat 
down and ate supper with him for the first 
time in two years. He immediately went 
down to the city and called a meeting of 
the aldermen and told them about the heal- 
ing of his wife and the ordinance was 
repealed. The mayor was deaf and he came 
to have his deafness healed. When he got 
there Ex-Gov. Cobb had been treated and 
healed of his rheumatism. The mayor 
came to my room to be treated and was 
healed. Now he wanted me to go and heal 
his sick wife, which I did. After that we 
could get anything in the city ; the churches 
and theatres were opened to us. The 



— 84 — 

negroes came in hundreds and it was 
necessary to form a separate line for them. 
An old black mammy (as they call them in 
the south) of real African type came up on 
crutches with a very bad case of inflamma- 
tory rheumatism. She was healed when 
she left my hands. She stood in the crowd 
looking at us in all reverence, trying her 
limbs that heretofore had been useless so 
long. The swelling had all gone. She 
broke forth with a voice peculiar to the 
southern darkey : "White folks, I don tole 
yo dat I was gwine to be healed, 'cause the 
good Lawd done said so and he said dat if 
we come to him in faith, believing, that 
anything we ask pertaining to his kingdom 
should be granted. It was the faith in de 
Lawd dat healed my crippleness and I is as 
good as you all. Now de bressed Lawd 
done made me whole dis minute." With 



— 85 — 

this she went dancing the pigeon wing 
down the street, shouting, "Jerusalem! 
Birmingham got her furnaces, she got her 
coal mine and her fine buildings and elec- 
tric railways, and now, bless God, she got a 
Jesus." All the negroes joined in to help 
her praise God for his loving kindness. It 
was just an old-fashioned negro camp- 
meeting. Everyone that was at the 
meeting that day received a blessing and 
left the meeting full of life and religious 
fervor. The people said that it was the 
greatest spiritual awakening that had ever 
occurred in that part of the country. Many 
were brought into the knowledge of the 
truth by seeing the actual demonstration 
of what Christ taught when he said: 
"Greater things than these shall ye do for 
I go unto the Father." 



CHAPTER VIII. 

We next found ourselves in Warrior, 
Alabama, to spend Sunday with the post- 
master, who came to Birmingham to be 
healed. The physicians had given him up 
and had told him that he could not live 
long. He had given up all hopes until his 
two daughters came to our meeting and 
they told their father what they had seen. 
Both of them took lessons of Mrs. L. V. 
Comer, who is now my wife. We were 
greeted at the station with a large gather- 
ing waiting for me to come, as the work 
was so widely known. We took dinner with 
the postmaster. The house was surrounded 
by thousands of afflicted people. Some 
were blind, some deaf, some came in rolling 
chairs and some in carriages. It was a 









— 87 — 

very beautiful place, situated in a valley 
surrounded by mountains and hills that 
were covered with evergreens. Some very 
remarkable healings occurred while here. 
As we had only come down for a few hours 
we did not have much time. We were due 
back in Birmingham in two hours and a 
half, as there were crowds of people 
waiting for me to return. I treated people 
all the way while going to the station and 
on the platform at the station a most 
pathetic scene occurred. I was standing 
on the platform of the train and the train 
started, when a mother came up with a 
baby in her arms, pleading for me to 
shower the blessing of the Father on her 
child. She came up to the moving train. 
I took hold of the baby's hands, the mother 
running to keep up with me. The engineer 
saw it and stopped the train. I took the 



child in my arms and discovered that the 
child was blind. I placed my hands on its 
eyes; the little one smiled and I gave it 
back to its mother and what I saw in her 
face was more than tongue could tell. The 
train started and I knew that God was all 
power and that he would not forsake the 
faithful. When we returned to Birming- 
ham we were greeted by a multitude at the 
depot. They followed us to our place of 
meeting and many were healed. The next 
day there were twenty thousand at the 
meeting. The next day following we went 
to Nashville, Tenn., which was to be the 
happiest day of my life. 

The Holy Writ says that God created 
man and woman after his own image, the 
woman a helpmeet for the man. There is 
always one woman for every man and that 
one his affinity who was made for him by 



the divine command. I had looked in vain 
for my other half but I had not met the 
one who would understand me. The 
weaving of circumstances plays a great 
part in all human life, hence all the ambi- 
tion of man and woman is to meet that one 
and share their lot together. While holding 
meetings in Birmingham. Ala., a lady by 
the name of Mrs. L. V. Comer came to the 
hotel accompanied by her sister, Mrs. 
Henry Berry, and a niece. They asked my 
manager if they could see the healer. In 
order to protect myself from the multitude 
I had told Mr. Gilbert not to allow anyone 
to come in ; but when the ladies came I told 
him to let them in. Mrs. Comer introduced 
herself to me and showed me the book of 
her work; then I knew that this was the 
woman that the Father had sent me to be 
the joy of my life. The minute I saw her 



— 90 — 

I was transformed. I could see in her the 
inspiration of my life. It was then that I 
knew that God moved in a mysterious way 
to bring about the meeting of souls that 
were mated in heaven. After she left 
something seemed to tell me that she was 
the one to be my wife. I tried to forget it 
but her presence haunted me and I deter- 
mined to forget her and banish that idea 
from my mind, but I could not. I saw her 
in every face I looked at. I concluded to 
give in, the Father knew best. I sent for 
her to come to me as I had some- 
thing of importance to communicate. 
When she arrived I was getting ready 
for my ten o'clock meeting. I told 
Mr. Gilbert to go and put out the 
platform and I would be there in a few 
minutes as I wanted to talk to Mrs. Comer. 
When he left I did not know what to say 



— 91 — 

or how to ask her to become my wife. I 
was afraid to ask her in the old way for 
fear she would refuse, so I just said to her : 
"I am going to make you Mrs. Schlatter; 
take this and go to the station and buy a 
ticket and I will meet you at the depot at 
twelve a. m. Get on another car so the 
people will not suspect anything, as this is 
too sacred to me to be written up in the 
papers. " We met at the station and boarded 
the train, each in a different part of the car. 
We were married at Culman, Ala., Jan. 
31st, 1899, by the Probate Judge; then we 
proceeded on to Nashville, Tenn. We did 
not hold any meetings for a few weeks as 
the weather was very cold. We were in 
each other's company and never being 
separated during our honeymoon, which 
lasted for over a month. We selected for 
this purpose an ideal spot in a house that 



— 92 — 

was in the center of a beautiful park that 
had been once a lovely place when the 
South was in its bloom and the people lived 
in luxury. There were relics of anti-bellum 
days, being the real old typical plantation, 
such as we see in traveling- through the 
South. It was situated on the banks of the 
Cumberland river. The park had long 
since gone to ruin but you could see the 
old gravel roadways, the trimmed cedars 
that were symmetrical in form, which went 
to show that at some day there was peace 
and plenty; but now it had taken on a 
different form and the flower beds that had 
been once cultivated and beautiful were 
evolved into a new condition and different 
plants had taken the place of the old ones. 
The old folks had passed away ; the darkies 
were no longer singing their melodies in 
the cotton fields. This was indeed a repeti- 



tion of what it speaks of in the Bible : "Old 
things shall pass away and all things 
become as new." Nature in its course of 
regeneration had left the mark upon that 
once happy Southern home, away down in 
Tennessee. 

The people discovered our resting place 
and forced us to go into the city to do the 
Father's work. The hay-market was given 
to us to hold our meetings and all manner 
of afflictions were healed, but the most 
notable case was that of Jehu Ayers of 
Cheatham, Tenn. This was the most 
remarkable healing that occurred in that 
city, he having been paralyzed for seven- 
teen years and could not move or talk. His 
daughter came to our meeting as we were 
distributing the blessed handkerchiefs. She 
handed me a handkerchief to bless. I gave 
it to her and told her to put it on the old 



— 94 — 

man's spine at the base of the brain. She 
did so and immediately after placing the 
handkerchief her father spoke and said: 
"Take me to the man that blessed the 
handkerchief.' ' The next day they brought 
him to me on a bed of straw in the bottom 
of a wagon. His son-in-law was with him 
and his dear old faithful wife. We called 
some men to help him out of the wagon. 
The poor old man's legs were so weak that 
they dragged behind him. They had to 
carry him to the platform. The men held 
him until I took hold of his hands. Then 
I told them to let go of him and the old 
man immediately stood up on his feet. My 
wife was surprised and began to cry for 
fear the old man would fall. His faithful 
wife was in the wagon praying earnestly 
to God for Jehu to walk again. Her 
prayers were answered. God heard her 






— 95 — 

pitiful appeal and the old man walked to 
the wagon, a distance of about fifty feet 
and stood up before thousands of people 
and preached the most pathetic sermon 
that was ever given, thanking God and the 
instrument for his wonderful restoration to 
health. He came again in three days and 
walked a distance of five blocks and was 
perfectly well. We remained in Nashville 
for three months blessing handkerchiefs 
to send to all parts of the world for the 
healing of the sick. We left Nashville on 
the 24th day of June, 1899, and went to 
Evansville, Ind., where we had held meet- 
ings the September previous, but only 
stopped there a short time, and then pro- 
ceeded to Terre Haute, where the people 
flocked by thousands. This is where 
Mr. Joseph A. Gurley, who lives at 
1625 Oak street, was practically raised 



— 96 — 

from the dead. A lady that was 
visiting the family came down in haste 
to our boarding house and told us 
that Mr. Gurley was dying and wanted us 
to go at once. We rode about a mile in a 
street car and then had to run for five 
blocks. It was a very hot July day, the 
mercury registering 105 in the shade. His 
wife had gone to the undertaker to make 
arrangements for his burial, as they could 
not afford to have him embalmed. When 
we got to the house he was breathing his 
last. My wife said: "Don't touch him, 
Frank, let him die in peace;" but I would 
not listen to her as I had a presentment to 
go to the bedside and raise him. I went in 
and touched him and in five minutes he 
opened his eyes and the first words he 
spoke were : "Mr. Schlatter. I want you to 
go across the street and heal my friend that 






— 97 — 

has got the rheumatism. When his wife 
returned he was sitting out on the porch. 
Smiles now took the place of tears in the 
once grief-stricken home. 

The next healing was that of Mrs. Ann 
Shephard of Mulberry street. She was 
brought to us at our street meeting on a 
bed in a wagon. She had not walked for 
twenty years. She was lifted out of the 
wagon and carried up to us and she was 
healed instantly and walked back to the 
wagon. A few days after that her husband 
announced from our platform that his wife 
had cooked his supper that night for the 
first time in twenty long years. 

From Terre Haute we went to Brazil, 
Ind., and had a very large demonstration; 
thousands of people gathered and blocked 
the streets for two blocks each way. We 



— 98 — 

called at LaFayette and were the guests 
of Mr. Lawrence Holmes, and from there 
we went to Indianapolis for a short time; 
thence to Ft. Wayne and then to Chicago 
for a rest. 

We held some meetings on State street 
in September, 1899, but the multitude 
was so great that we stopped the street 
cars in ten minutes' time. They assigned 
us to Washington and State streets, oppo- 
site Marshall Field's store. There were 
hundreds healed. This was my second 
visit to Chicago. 



CHAPTER IX. 

We now went to Kokomo, Ind., and 
settled for the winter, stopping at the 
home of George Deffenbaugh, and during 
this time we went to Marion and sent to 
the Detroit Free Press and stopped Dr. 
Charles McClean from using my name. He 
was going about taking my name, calling 
himself Schlatter, the healer, to draw a 
crowd. While we remained in Kokomo 
the crowds kept coming and I was busy 
day and night. The 2nd of April, 1900, we 
went to Parkersburg, W. Va. As I could 
not stop any longer (I wanted to be about 
my Father's business) we returned to 
Kokomo, Ind. My half-brother, T. W. 
Martin, joined me for the summer. We 
visited Frankfort, Ind., and Sandusky, O., 

LofC. 



— 100 — 

and gave our demonstration at Rye Beach. 
We enjoyed ourselves here, living in a tent 
for a time, and then we went to Chicago 
and rested for a month. We started out 
again, going to Youngstown, O., Pitts- 
burg and Johnstown, Pa., and then to 
Washington, D. C, and Williamsport, Pa., 
and from there to New York City, where 
I started an Institute for healing at 807 
Lexington avenue, with the same Dr. 
Benno A. Hallenburg that was with me in 
Cleveland, O. This was in February, 1901, V 
and later we were located at 335 West • 
Central Park, where we treated nearly all 
of the Fifth avenue millionaires. We tried 
to get Central Park for our open air meet- 
ings, but were not allowed the privilege. I 
became restless again and sold out my 
beautiful home, which nearly broke my 
wife's heart, but the Father did not want 



— 101 — 

me to settled down. He had something 
else for me to do. I went to Baltimore, 
Md., and my wife went to Washington, 
where my step-son was attending school. 
She remained here as she could not go 
with me, as I had another leading to walk 
through the country again and heal where- 
ever I was led. This journey lasted for 
fourteen months, but I was treated well by 
everyone I came in contact with and I 
healed many. I walked through the states 
of Maryland and Virginia, and while at 
Troy, Va., I blessed a handkerchief that 
was sent to King Edward. I went to 
Staunton and followed the line of the 
Chesapeake and Ohio railroad to Hunt- 
ington, W. Va. From there I went a part 
of the way by boat to St. Louis, stayed 
three days, then went to Till City, Ind., to 
treat a lady who could not come to me as 



— 102 — 

she was bedridden. Her husband heard 
that I was at St. Louis and came after me. 
He begged me so hard that I had a leading 
to go. A gentleman by the name of Robert 
Clum, who had seen me in Kokomo, lived 
at Hawesville, Ky., just across the river, 
came for me to go and see a lady that had 
not walked for many years. She had told 
him that if she could see me she knew 
that she could walk again. It was her only 
hope. I went to see her. I had not treated 
her yet, but was going in the door when 
she arose from her chair that she had sat in 
for twenty-five years, and walked over to 
me and shook hands with me. It says in the 
Bible that in that day you shall look upon 
them and they shall be healed. This was a 
manifestation of that prophesy; that day 
had come. In the meantime my wife had 
gone to California and I was on the way to 



— 103 — 

meet her, but I received a telegram from 
her that she was in Denver, at Mrs. Fox's 
house, where I had been a guest while 
giving my demonstrations in that city. She 
went there to tell my friends that I was 
coming back and to find out the feeling 
against me, as there was a summons out 
for me to appear in court as a witness 
against the men who were selling the hand- 
kerchiefs they said had been blessed by me. 
This was the real cause of my leaving 
Denver November 13th, 1895. I told them 
I should be there for sixty days and my 
time would have been up the next day. My 
wife learned that the case had been settled 
and now we are going back again. I shall 
have a wife by my side. We have been 
invited back to the home of my former 
hostess, Mrs. Ed. L. Fox. 



— 104— 

After my wife returned, she met me in 
Greenville, O. I had cut my hair and 
shaved my beard. She did not know me, 
as it changed me so much. After spending 
a short time together at Miamisburg, my 
wife went to Chicago, being called there by 
a telegram to attend a very sick family, 
and I joined her a week later and we were 
the guests of C. H. Besly of Edison Park, 
111. From there my wife went to Kalama- 
zoo, Mich., where I joined her in about 
ten days. This was the first place that I 
had ever been led to speak. I delivered 
two lectures at the Auditorium, one of 
them on Sunday, Dec. 21st, and the other 
on the following Sunday, Dec. 28th, 1902 
were on Evolution. When I left Denver 
I told them that the next time I came I 
would talk. From Kalamazoo we went to 
Dowagiac and remained about a month. 



— 105 — 

doing a great work in healing. It was 
while in Dowagiac that I was induced to 
write this book. I sincerely hope my poor 
attempt at writing and any errors that 
should occur, you must consider that the 
writer is not a classical scholar, but has 
been willing to follow the footsteps of the 
lowly Nazarene. Whither he goeth I will 
follow. 

Yours in truth, 

FRANCIS SCHLATTER. 



Letter from Senator T. C. Snyder. 

Canton, Ohio., September 10, 1897. 
Francis Schlatter, 

Windsor Park, 111. 
Dear Sir and Friend: — Yours of 9th 
inst., by your secretary, received. Accept 
my sincere congratulations on your 
acquittal. It should, and I believe will, 
prevent such arrests in the future, so far as 
you are concerned. I approve of laws to 
protect the people against "quacks" but 
deprecate interference with the practice of 
a healer whose treatment is always harm- 
less and free, particularly by one who cures 
so many and benefits others. The powers 
with which you are endowed should in fair- 
ness be acknowledged by all, and scouted 
by none. That such powers can not be 
understood does not disprove their exist- 



— 107 — 

ence. The facts of your success you are 
entitled to, whether others can understand 
or not. It is ungenerous and irrational to 
disbelieve, much more to deny, for the only 
reason that we cannot understand. 

Hoping for your success and happiness, 
Sincerely yours, 

T. C. SNYDER, 
Senator, and President Canton Steel 
Roofing Co. 

P. S. — From a conversation I had on 
Monday last with President McKinley, I 
am convinced that he believes in your 
power. He is too honest to doubt after the 
evidence he hears. He was much pleased 
and interested in my statement. 

NOTE. — The arrest and acquittal 
alluded to in Senator Snyder's letter above 
grew out of an attempted prosecution of 



— 108 — 



Mr. Schlatter, by the Chicago Medical 
Board, for practicing medicine without a 
license. 



This, in brief, is the history of the man 
whom as high as 5,000 people in a single 
day have crowded to see and be touched by 
in Denver, and other cities throughout this 
country. How miserable and contemptible 
a history it will seem to thousands who 
think the history of John the Baptist, 
living on locusts and wild honey, with but 
a mean girdle about his loins, glorious. 

Let us remember that it is we who think 
Saint John's life of self-surrender glorious, 
The greater part of his contemporaries — 
all the prosperous and proud who were 
interested in preserving the status quo, 
thought him a contemptible and vicious 



— 109 — 

lunatic and they cut his head off to stop the 
wagging of his trenchant tongue. 

I consider the candor, the interest and 
the sympathy with which this poor, simple 
Alsatian has been received in Denver, 
where his history is known as one of the 
most remarkable and thought compelling 
events I have ever witnessed. The Rev. 
Myron Reed, the most noted pulpit orator 
of the west, preached a strong and sympa- 
thetic sermon on the man's character and 
mission recently in which he said: "We 
have in our midst today a man whose 
credentials are as good as those possessed 
by Jesus of Nazareth before, and when he 
marched to the Jordan to be baptized by 
John." 

"He has helped me morally." 
"He is doing good here, he is calling our 
attention to the fact that the center and 



— 110 — 

source of all life is God. Not a God who a 
long time ago filled a cistern and then went 
away, but God a free flowing spring, a 
present help in every time of need." 




/tlm. -W^nve^^^UcAicctt^l 



THE STORY AS TOLD BY MRS. 
COMER-SCHLATTER. 

It was at Buffalo Lithia Springs, Va., 
that I was awakened to the Spirit of God. 
It was about three o'clock in the afternoon, 
July 1 8th, 1.892. I was there for my health, 
as it was my last resort. I had traveled 
over the best part of the United States and 
had been under the care of some of the best 
physicians. The doctor that I was under 
at the time, having exhausted all his knowl- 
edge, discovered that his work and medi- 
cine had no effect on my condition and he 
said to me: "I have no hope; I do not 
think that you can live much longer; not 
over two or three hours at best." 

It was in this condition that I gave up all 
hope to receive any help from the physical 



— 112 — 

side of life. After the physician left the 
room I offered up a prayer : "O Lord, have 
mercy on my soul." Just then I felt a con- 
sciousness; there was something higher 
and purer than man had yet discovered; a 
thrill of tender love passed through me and 
gave me strength to rise from my bed and 
I dressed myself in a loose gown and 
walked down the long back veranda and 
sat down under a beautiful locust tree. 
Then I began to pray to know if there was 
a God and if there was ever such a man 
lived as Jesus Christ, and if he lived today; 
if so, where is he and what is he? While 
offering up this prayer, I found myself in a 
few moments enveloped in perfect dark- 
ness, and a feeling as though I were being 
smothered and could not breathe. Then a 
thought passed through my mind: "This 
is death." The suffering increased and the 



— 113 — 

pain grew intense. While in this painful 
state of consciousness, I was awakened to 
the Spirit of God and the pains were 
instantly transformed into a state of 
exalted love. I was perfectly thrilled with 
the consciousness of life ; my soul began to 
rise and rise until I was perfectly conscious 
of a beautiful illuminated sun. I could see 
the rays penetrating through creation and 
giving life to every being. While in this 
illuminated state my physical body became 
perfectly relaxed. I remained in this 
exalted state until I could understand that 
the Spirit of God was perfect harmony and 
that it filled every atom of my body. I felt 
the presence of a man and turned to look, 
thinking it was the doctor, and that he had 
returned to my room and found me away. 
I looked and saw no man, but heard a voice 



— 114 — 

say at my right side : "Act as if I am the 
Christ." 

I passed then into a state of conscious- 
ness that could never be spoken in words 
or written by pen. Just then I arose to 
return to my room, when I felt that I was 
being carried by a host of angels. When 
I arrived at my room I looked into the 
mirror and saw that my cheeks looked as if 
they had been painted. My eyes were 
bright and full of light. I discovered that 
my body had reflected all that my soul had 
become conscious of while under the tree. 
I dressed myself and went into the dining 
room feeling perfectly well and so happy. 
I could see the beautiful soul in all the 
people. All looked so tender and kind, 
while I was watching the Spirit of God 
work. The doctor's wife came in. She 
rushed to my side and asked me what had 



— 115 — 

happened. The doctor came and felt of my 
pulse and wanted to know what .had taken 
place. I said : "Nothing ; I have only had 
a little talk with God." The doctor's wife 
spoke and said : "He made a good job of it ; 
there is nothing in your face but sunshine 
and happiness." 

After supper I walked over to the office 
with the doctor and told him I would take 
no more electricity. "Why not?" said the 
doctor. I answered him by saying that I 
had found the real within. "What you are 
using is the imitation." I felt that the 
doctor doubted me and that seemed to 
make me stronger. I then spoke by say- 
ing, "The day will come when the paralytic 
will be healed by the touch, be made to rise 
and walk instantaneously, in the name of 
Jesus Christ." "Ah," said the doctor, "the 
millennium will be here then." I said: "The 



— 116 — 

millennium is here now to those who know 
God." It was one year and a half from that 
day that the prophesy took place at the 
Grand Hotel, at Cincinnati, Ohio. It was 
Mr. Clarence Mcllvain who was given up 
by Dr. Pendergrass, the disease being 
Locomotor Ataxia. They had a consulta- 
tion of four physicians and they all agreed 
the case was incurable. Afterwards I had 
a talk with the doctor and he decided to 
turn the case over to me. I had him walk- 
ing in twenty minutes. He was restored to 
perfect health and took his position again 
as a clerk at the Hotel. This took place 
in 1894. The next case was a young man 
of Chicago who had been blind for "two 
years. The very best physicians had pro- 
nounced his case hopeless, when his eye- 
sight was restored August, 1895. It was 
then that the crowds gathered at Dr. C. I. 



— 117 — 

Thatcher's home on Aberdeen street, 
Chicago, 111. It was then that I became 
perfectly conscious that I had been born 
with the gift of healing. It was while I 
was the guest of Dr. Thatcher that I heard 
of Mr. Schlatter in Denver, Colo. A lady 
of Chicago was in Denver at the time he 
was a guest of Mrs. E. L. Fox, for her 
health. She tried to get to Mr. Schlatter 
at the time but the crowd was so great it 
was impossible to reach him. 

She returned to Chicago and read in the 
paper of the work I was doing. She came 
to me and was healed of asthma instantane- 
ously. She returned next morning to thank 
me and brought Mr. Schlatter's photo, 
which she had bought in Denver. The 
crowd grew so large at Dr. Thatcher's home 
that I was compelled to get a place with 
more room, so I went and secured a large 



— 118 — 

hall in the Masonic temple, where the peo- 
ple could be seated. I also had an office, 
No. 1225, where the people could consult 
me. It was there that I read so much about 
Mr, Schlatter. It was in 1896 that I had a 
leading to go to Washington, D. C. By 
that time Mr. Schlatter had left Denver. 
The "Washington Post" in writing up my 
work, wrote me up as a female rival of 
Schlatter. It was at one of my meetings 
that I prophesied that Schlatter would 
come to the front again and do greater 
works than he had ever done before. It was 
in June, 1897, tnat I became president of 
the non-sectarian and non-partisan con- 
vention. In August I returned to Chicago 
and discovered that Mr. Schlatter was at 
the Manhattan Beach Hotel, where there 
were over forty-five thousand people 
gathered to see him. On the following 



— 119 — 

Sunday I called to see him, to congratu- 
late him in his good work, but he had gone. 
I felt consciously that when the time came, 
I would meet him. In 1898 I was called 
south. Mr. Schlatter was then in Birming- 
ham. I had been reading all the time from 
1895 to 1898 about his work and he had 
been reading about mine. It was in Jan- 
uary that I was invited to go with a com- 
pany, when I became better acquainted 
with Mr. Schlatter. It was on Tuesday, 
the 31st, 1899, that we were married at 
Culman, Ala. Then we began work 
together. It was true that my prophesy 
came to pass that he was to do greater 
works than he had done in Denver. I saw 
him raise the dead in Terre Haute, Ind. It 
was Geo. A. Gurley, 538 Oak street. It was 
in Brazil, Ind., that I lectured to over five 



— 120 — 

thousand people. We continued our work 
through the country and thousands of 
people were healed. 

Just a few words more. I wish to say- 
that I believe in prayer and the spoken 
word. My favorite chapters in the Bible 
are the first, fourteenth and seventeenth 
chapters of St. John. I think that if we 
read those in sincerity and faith, believing, 
we will come into the spirit of it and then 
we will see and understand that all is now 
fulfilled and present for us to enjoy if we 
will accept. 

Remember this : If you are not healed 
the fault does not lie in the healer or in 
God ; for God is too pure to behold iniquity 
and he would not have called the healer to 
be an instrument unless he had known he 



— 121 — 

could have used it. It is something in us 
that we must give up. Jesus Christ, speak- 
ing of this, said : "Deny thyself and come 
to the Father," meaning to give up all 
thoughts and ideas and turn to the Spirit. 
This I know is a truth for I experienced it 
when I was healed under the tree at Buffalo 
Lithia. Our idea of God is not God, for 
God is greater than any human or mortal 
idea. 

Paul, speaking of our ideas, called them 
filthy rags, sounding brass and tinkling 
cymbals. 

So let us give up our ideas and turn to 
the true Spirit where we will have one God, 
one Lord Jesus Christ and one brother- 
hood of man, and that one God is Infinite 
Love. 



— 122 — 

The book that I am writing will soon be 
ready for the press and there I will give 
the deep, spiritual meaning of the Scrips 
tures as it was given to me in my revela- 
tion. 

MRS. COMER-SCHLATTER. 




"SECRET OF SCHLATTER'S 
v HEALING REVEALED" v 



THE most complete and 
concise Book on the 
subject in existence, giving- 
a true description of instan- 
taneous healing, as practiced 
in all parts of the country. 

By FRANCIS SCHLATTER. 
Price, Postpaid, 

$1.00. 



Address W. E. WOODARD. 

226 West Vine Street, - - Kalamazoo, Michigan, 



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